JOR - Opening win has Palma talking tough in Doha

DOHA (Asian Games) - Jordan began their 15th Asian Games campaign in Qatar with a hard-fought 62-59 victory over Iran.

Coach Mario Palma hopes it's the first of many triumphs for his young Jordan squad.

His team still has plenty of tough matches coming up in Group E with Syria, hosts Qatar, South Korea and Bahrain to follow.

The Portuguese Palma, the former Angolan national team coach who took the reins of the the Middle East country earlier this summer, is confident - so much so that he expects to make Jordan a team that can seriously compete next summer at the FIBA Asian Championship and earn a place at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The 56-year-old talked to PA Sport's David Hein on behalf of FIBA after Jordan's tournament-opening victory over Iran.

FIBA: Coach, what are your thoughts after claiming victory in your first game of the 2006 Asian Games?

Palma: "For the first game, I think it was good. We won the game because we were calm enough to slow down the game and play effective in the half court. We spread out the court and played defence very well. We put a lot of pressure on the ball and they scored only 59 points. And that's good against Iran. We don't really have the players to play inside against them and needed to play well outside. Also, we didn't know anything about Iran. We knew about some players, but we didn't know about how they play. So I'm happy because my players played very hard. I think we were the best team in the game. We made a lot of mistakes against their press. If we beat the press today, we would have won easily. But it's happened before. Still we deserved to win."

FIBA: Is dealing with the press a problem you've had in the past?

Palma: "We have young players and the Iranians put a guy back so we couldn't attack the basket comfortably. But we also have two guards in the United States who couldn't come. They would help us a lot. But if we don't play defence we lose this game. We got back after our turnovers and that way key. Their big 7-footer (Hamed Ehadadi) got a few points but he couldn't do anything against us inside. We killed him on defence."

FIBA: Jordan guard Wesam Alsous led all scorers with 19 points including a number of important three-pointers in the first half. Talk about him and how important he was for you today.

Palma: "Most of our guards are kids who have never played for the national team. And since we were missing a couple other guys, he worked out with the team and developed very well. The players know that Wesam was on the team before and can help them. He hit some big three pointers and really organised the offense. Clearly he was the best player of the game. I'm very happy with him because we came here with some problems at guard, and he proved he can be the guard of the team. And that's the most important thing."

FIBA: There are also a number of very big inside players in this tournament. Does that make the play of your captain, 6ft 8in center Zaid Al Khas that much more important?

Palma: "We are not afraid of big guys. We are afraid of good players. That's the difference. If they are good, we're going to have big problems. If they are big but not good, I don't think we'll have any problems."

FIBA: Jordan are not known for lots of success in international tournaments. What is the team's goal here?

Palma: "Our objective is to get to the next round and try to get the best place we can in our group so that we don't get China in the cross games. But let's go see what happens. On Saturday we play Syria. We beat Syria last week, but they're going to be a strong game against us because they run very well in the fast break. They have two very quick players and it's going to be a completely different game than the Iran game. If we beat Syria, we then have Qatar and they are strong as well with the crowd even more. We respect them and know they're very good by making it to the World Championship. We will have to play really hard defence. And if we do that we can win. But it won't be easy. But I have confidence in my players."

FIBA: You came to Jordan after a six-year stint as coach of the Angola national team. Talk please about the development of the Jordan team so far.

Palma: "If we didn't work as hard as we did in the past three months we would have lost by 20 points against Iran. This Iranian team is very strong. It may be the best team they've ever had. They really have great players. If this team works hard and improves, they can really be a great team - not only here, but in World Championship as well. They have three-point shooters, tall players, they are athletic, they can shoot, they can drive. And they are young. They are a great team. But I think we are a better team. That's why we won."

FIBA: What were your thoughts watching Angola reach the final 16 of the FIBA World Championship in Japan in September?

Palma: "I was very happy. But I think Angola could have beaten France and Germany to make the top eight. Maybe they could win another game after there, too. You never know. It would have been difficult. But I'm happy because of the work I did. I left one month before the World Championship because the Angolan national federation wanted me to stay two more years. And I said no because I didn't have anything to win. We had an agreement that I go to the World Championship. But since I didn't want to stay, they said maybe we could bring you back for the African Championship in 2007. I understand it. So I came to Jordan because this is a real challenge for me. You come here with a young team who has never won anything. And you try to build a team. We have a lot of good players outside the country and next year we'll fight to go to the Olympic Games because China is there already. Okay Lebanon, Qatar, Iran and Syria are going to be a very big problem for us. But with the players outside we can build a better team and these players here are going to be better because of this experience."

By PA Sport
Exclusively for FIBA